Dine Like An Early New Englander

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Imagine reading recipes by candlelight, preparing a meal in a real country hearth, and rolling out the same type of biscuits early New Englanders ate in the early 1800′s.

No, this is not Thanksgiving.

This is “Dinner in a Country Village” at Old Sturbridge Village.

A Throwback Feast

Dinner in a Country Village runs on several Saturday nights between November and March – and it’s one of the perennial favorite things to do on Cape Cod in the winter.

But unlike most OSV food programs where costumed intrepreters do all of the work and the guests enjoy the results, diners at Dinner in a Country Village ARE the cooks! It’s a full-immersion program in mid-19th-century New England food. It’s also a real crowd pleaser!

Cooking By Candlelight

Dinner in a Country Village takes places inside the Parsonage, which has a substantial cooking hearth and an in-chimney back oven. The kitchen is also big enough to accommodate 15 people and three interpreters, whose job is to primarily keep the food prep flowing and introduce participants to such things like roasting coffee beans in fireplace coals.

After donning aprons, participants are divided into teams to tackle the four food groups: appetizers, meat, vegetables, and pastry. Within no time, the kitchen often moves at full tilt. And with a cooking fire radiating in the kitchen – be prepared to trade your winter sweater for a t-shirt. Participants are always advised to dress in layers.

Dinner preparations – always by candlelight – begin at 5:30pm. Two hours later – dinner is served. But participants don’t eat with traditional forks and knives – no way! Back in pre-civil war New England forks were awkward, two-tined utensils, designed to spear food and hold it in place. Often, polite company ate from their blunt, broad knives.

What’s On The Winter Meal Menu?

Dinner in a Country Village includes traditional old-New England fare, including:

• Pounded Cheese
• Mulled Cider
• Onion Soup
• Roasted Carrots
• Stewed Beets
• Turnip Sauce
• Hot Slaw
• Roast Beef with Kitchen Pepper
• Horseradish Cream
• Fricaseed Chicken, Brown
• Marlboro Pudding
• Butter Biscuits
• Trifle
• Coffee
• Also, sparkling cider served with dinner.

Make Your Reservations!

Enjoy a unique opportunity to prepare and eat a meal as early New Englanders did.  Now is the time to reserve your spot at the table at Old Sturbridge Village.

Tickets run $85 per person – and almost every Saturday night meal is sold out!

Make your reservations – then enjoy the fruits of your labor with a hearty, delicious meal and a stay at one of the many nearby Cape Cod Hotels.

It promises to be an experience you won’t soon forget!

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